Talk:Great Nature/@comment-26542017-20160824135548/@comment-4292163-20160827194624
You know it's funny Steve, the build you're describing is pretty much exactly how I built my own Success build in testing, and I noticed pretty much all of the same flaws you listed, but we seem to have come to opposite conclusions. I guess you're more willing to overlook the listed flaws? The weakness to control is a big issue for me, and I'm not just talking about how Bigbelly is a vanilla heart when the board is wiped. Success by its nature assumes you already have a solid board setup, which isn't a given against control, so your engine is going to be failing when you're in a tight spot. Furthermore, focusing on not retiring your rearguards means controls clans simply have more targets to work with, so you're bleeding more advantage against field disruption. Bigbelly-Chatnoir builds just don't have the latter two problems, and while the "vanilla heart" issue is still an thing - perhaps even moreso in the Chatnoir build than the Success build - the flexibility of the Chat build means you can just ignore Bigbelly and combo off Chatnoir and Tusk Master in matchups where Bigbelly would drag you down. Success' speed issues is also something that deserves more mention than you gave it, because forward momentum and snowballing advantage are major parts in this game. I'd go so far as to say that while Success should out-draw and out-aggro Bigbelly-Chatnoir on paper, in practice I found the two produced about equal results, precisely because the synergy between Bigbelly and Success was undermined by slow tempo. It's basically the same reason why the power gap between GB1 and non-GB1 cards is huge on paper, yet people still play non-GB1 cards regularly - a good tempo is very strong in this game. Putting aside the virtues of speed in general, I noticed that Success' poor tempo was especially damaging in certain matchups like rush. Bigbelly needs at least moderate field commitment pre-stride to be effective, but doesn't generate any actual plusses until it starts striding, which is trouble against decks like SGD-Blaster that can go in for the kill as early as their first stride, especially if the SGD player is striding first. Even something like Time Leap, which has an explosive first stride turn, will hurt a lot if they get first stride, because of how they make you hemorrhage card advantage before you even have a chance to start plussing. Bigbelly-Chatnoir has a much easier time here, because their early game lets you get out ahead of the opponent by rushing or (counter-rushing) while still maintaining or even building hand advantage. Now I will admit, in matchups where the above aren't major issues, such as tank decks or the majority of beatdown decks, Success can definitely match or even exceed Bigbelly-Chatnoir in terms of overall effectiveness, but it's important to note that any extra advantage you're squeezing out of these matchups comes at the cost of failing to cover the above basic weaknesses. Simply put, Success amplifies Bigbelly's strengths at the cost of amplifying Bigbelly's weaknesses, and that's reason enough for me to never consider the Success build optimal. Viable certainly, depending on meta, but not objectively optimal.